Five years ago today, Books on Cities began with a piece on Ben Wilson’s Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind's Greatest Invention. Since then, I’ve posted review-essays about books both old and new, by writers including Jan Morris, Mike Davis, Orhan Pamuk, Georges Perec, Stewart Brand, Joan Didion, and David Byrne; on cities from New York to New Orleans, Toronto to Tokyo, London to Lagos, and Oklahoma City to Mexico City; and dealing with subjects including public transit, parking, zoning, languages, third places, and American anti-urbanism.
So many more books and cities remain to cover — including quite a few that I already had in mind when I launched this newsletter in 2020, not to mention all the volumes yet to be published. In any case, as a celebration of its first half-decade, I’m putting one-year subscriptions on sale for just $30 for a limited time. Upgrade to paid, if you haven’t done so already, and not only will you be able to read every single Books on Cities piece, you’ll also be able to comment on them. But don’t do it for me; do it for these twin future city-explorers, born just last month:
